Thursday, December 29, 2011

Christmas 2011




Christmas 2011 has come and gone. We were so glad to have Mr. Bowden Brigade home for the holiday. As soon as his plane touched down, we headed on to Arkansas for the festivities with our families.

It was great to spend time with them!





Neeley had a great time receiving all of her goodies. She's not loved or anything! :)







Of course, our trip wouldn't be complete without a visit to the River Market in Little Rock for some fun on the ice!



It always makes me a bit sad to think of how quickly the holidays pass us. But I do welcome a new year that bring about a renewed spirit to purge and clean and revisit our goals.

Bring on 2012!!!

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Frozen yogurt pops, anyone?







Frozen yogurt has increased in popularity among the choices for healthy snacks for children. Packed with fat free or low fat yogurt, fresh or frozen fruits, skim milks, sugar free juices, and other nutritional foods, frozen yogurt can be eaten in a variety of ways to satisfy even the pickiest of eaters.

Frozen yogurt pops are a fun, convenient way to introduce new foods to children. Take away the candy, cookies, cakes, and pies, and instead put a frozen yogurt pop in to the hand of a child and sit back with satisfaction.



A quick way to make these yummy treats is to pour the blended yogurt, fruit, milk, juice, and ice mixture in to small disposable cups, add in a popsicle stick, and place them in to the freezer. No kid can ever deny the sheer goodness presented.

For a simple treat, try this recipe:

1) Place 2 cups of your favorite fresh fruits in to a blender.
Add in 2 cups of plain or vanilla yogurt, preferably of the fat free or low fat variety.
Pour in up to a quarter cup of white sugar, depending on the nutritional needs of the child, as well as the natural sweetness of the fruits.
Cover, and blend until smooth.


2)
Fill small paper cups ¾ of the way full with the yogurt mixture. Cover the cups with aluminum foil or plastic wrap. Poke a popsicle stick through the cover and allow the stick to stand up in each cup.


3)
Place the cups in the freezer for at least 5 hours. To serve, remove foil or plastic wrap and peel off the paper cup.



Depending on the fruits selected, and other ingredients used, the calorie count for each frozen yogurt pop should weigh in between 75 and 100 calories.

These can be made in many varieties, so mix and match and have fun in the kitchen with children!



Find my original post over at
http://www.examiner.com/children-s-fitness-in-topeka/frozen-yogurt-pops.

A Different Kind of Marathon

Content by Faustino Fuentes

A box once full of tissues now lay empty at my feet. The trash can overflowed with discarded cough drops and half eaten meals. I had the flu and I was miserable. I sat on the chair staring aimlessly off into space after a hefty dose of cold medicine which made me tired and wired all at the same time. I had quarantined myself in a dark little spare bedroom far away from my happy healthy family. With nothing else to do, I pulled the covers up tight and I flipped on DIRECT TV and settled into a marathon of my favorite travel channel show. It was wonderful to get lost in a high definition trip through all the European countries while I sniffled and groaned the afternoon away. This was the closest to a marathon I was ever going to get so I made the most of it. Four full hours later, sleep finally found me and I welcomed it with open arms. I dreamt of the French coastline and of delicious foods. I awoke to the smell of breakfast and realized I might just survive because I was starving.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Children's health, fitness and nutrition information in your local area

As a health, fitness and nutrition consultant, children's general well-being is my platform. Read more about fun ACTIVE things to do in the area, get children's sportswear recommendations, yummy recipes the whole family can enjoy, and so much more! Covering the Fort Riley, Manhattan, Junction City, Ogden, Topeka, and Wichita areas. http://www.examiner.com/childrens-fitness-in-topeka/ashley-bowden Care to join me as an Examiner? Let me know!

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

I Need Your Help!




How are you spending your Thursday evening? Why not take a few minutes out of your schedule, put the kids to bed early, whatever you have to do, and join us for a webinar to learn what we do as Beachbody Coaches. I would love to have you as a personally invited guest to participate with us. Message me for the link and we'll get you set up!


And....I'm happy to announce that Beachbody is recognizing the growing population of military coaches and is now allowing FREE sign ups for active duty military personnel and spouses. Won't you join us....military or not! :)

Friday, December 9, 2011

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Finding Our Groove


Can you believe it's already December? And the 4th of the month at that? What????? I'm not so sure we've found it 100%, but we are starting to get in to our groove and getting connected and we're LOVING living in "The Little Apple".

Neeley is LOVING her school, and though I am noticing differences in the curriculum, so far, so good. {Is it weird that they don't do any science or social studies until the second semester? Darn that No Child Left Behind crud!!}

I am loving my job but am very overwhelmed to be working full time again.

And speaking of which....being somewhere full time means no time for shopping or living. LOL So nope I've not done one bit of Christmas shopping. Zip.Zilch.Nada. Nope, not a thing! There is nothing underneath our tree so far this year. Looks like I'll have to leave Neeley home by herself one day just to get it all done. CrAzY times! :)

Neeley and I tried out another new church this morning and I believe we've found our home.



New Hope Community Church, with its' focus on pursuing Christ-centered relationships that will change the world, just feels right for us. And we LOVE it! Neeley is in their kidsLIFE program and really enjoyed her class this morning. I really appreciated the sermon on money and finances. And I like a good ol' Southern Baptist sermon but I also enjoyed that I wasn't screamed or yelled at this morning nor were any Bibles thrown. :) All in all, it was a GREAT experience for us and I just know we'll definitely return next Sunday. Check it out at http://www.newhopeks.org!

Neeley is gearing up for her Hip Hop recital in May...and I couldn't be more excited for her to find her outlet here. She is really enjoying the class.

It's beginning to really get chilly here and I'm so not ready for that. This Kansas wind is about to kill us all I think. :) It's like nothing I've experienced before.

I'm starting another Team Direct Impact fitness challenge after the first of the year and I'm super excited! I am actually thinking of starting 3 different challenges if I can and I'll keep you posted. One will definitely be a P90X round. Stay tuned!!

Welp, it's time for another trip to Wal-Mart. I LOVE productive Sundays. Not that a trip to Wal-Mart makes it a productive day, lol, but I have already accomplished so much today to help get through the next week, and it feels GREAT!

Have a good week, y'all!! ;)